Insanities, soundness, and reality: A collection of shorts stories told perhaps by the same person

                                                      Acknowledgments

This is the first book of fiction I have written in English in all my years as a writer. It has therefore, special significance for me. It is not a translation. I wrote it directly into the English language, and although I have written many essays and even a couple of textbooks in English, this is the first time I have ventured into the world of literature in a language that was not my first language.

After more than 40 years, living in this soil, it is impossible to deny that I am an American as much as I claimed to be a Mexican or Mexican American. My identity has been broken into 3 parts, the Mexican culture, the Chicano culture, and yes, sometimes the Anglo-US American culture.

I agree with my friend, Ana Castillo, who told me one time: “Don’t be afraid of cultural fragmentation.”

I am not afraid. I welcome this fragmentation!

Taking all of these into consideration, when I wrote Insanities, soundness, and reality, I truly believe I went beyond the natural narrative for a man living 40 years in the United States of America. The stories shared in this book, represent a wide variety of characters, personalities, ideologies, tendencies, and problems faced.

The main thread that unites this book, is the humanity we all shared.

Yes, we are all immigrants, all of us came from other nations. We are all members of a community that not only claimed but is a member of the sometimes rare and unique American culture. However, what we all disclosed, more than similarities and differences, is our plain humanity, because as human beings, we all laugh, cry, hope, desire and seek.

I want to thank some individuals that were essential in the writing of this book. Mrs. Tosello, Mr. Xander, and Mr. Jimenez, all of them were my English teachers at Montgomery High School, and I cannot stop being grateful for all the encouragement and advice they gave me. Thank you all, for your words and all the help you provided back then, it was the foundation for my English writing today.

Also, I want to thank two colleagues, both, professors of English Literature, Miguel Fernandez, Literature and Composition Residential Faculty, at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, and Kimberly Williams, who is also the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Glendale Community College, both of them provided suggestions, corrections and insights that developed the depth in the stories of this volume.

Furthermore, I want to thank Editorial Garabatos, and its general editor, Emilio Robles, for all the professional work, the edition, the suggestions, and the patience with this writer.

Last but not least, I want to thank the reader, for allowing me to share this madness that sometimes we believe it’s only ours, but once we swim in the sea of insanities and or realities, we discover we might not all be crazy, rather, we might all share what I call: “the complex human experience.”

David Alberto Muñoz
September 2016

From the book soon to be printed:  Insanities, soundness, and reality: A collection of short stories written perhaps by the same person.  Editorial Garabators, 2016.